


A Lesson in Trust and Ulterior Motives

by ednae



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Gen, don't trust old bitter men with money dash, they just want to use you for their weird obsession with family, you done fucked up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-06-10 12:07:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6955897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ednae/pseuds/ednae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Upon graduating, Dash is offered a chance to live his dream by none other than Mayor Vlad Masters.  Unfortunately, there seems to be a few conditions for that to happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lesson in Trust and Ulterior Motives

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Sunshine](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/200140) by Promsien. 



Dash Baxter had resigned himself to a life being a nobody.  He wasn't particularly good at school, and he had no hobbies outside of sports.  And he had been okay with this.  He would end up as a garbage man, or he'd work at his dad's shop, or something.  It hadn't been until Vlad Masters came into his life that he found a new sense of worth.

Vlad had given him a second chance at life when, at the end of his senior year, he had approached Dash with a proposition.  His term in office had just ended, and he was moving back to Wisconsin.  He asked Dash to come back with him.  Apparently Vlad had some kind of influence over the Green Bay Packers, and he had agreed to sponsor Dash's football career with the team.

Dash had agreed without hesitation.  He excelled at sports; there was a reason he had been the quarterback on Casper High's team since his freshman year.  And it wasn't as if he'd had better plans for his future.

The two had left Amity Park almost immediately after his graduation.  He remembered beaming smiles from his proud parents as he climbed into Vlad's limousine.  He also remembered the jealous looks he had gotten, and though he hadn't really paid much attention to them, he still felt a lingering smugness at his newfound success.

Dash almost didn't notice when the limousine pulled into a long driveway.  He was still half-asleep from the nap he had taken, and his thoughts were completely driven by his recent memories.  He owed Vlad everything for his help jumpstarting his football career into gear.  He ignored the massive mansion that they were approaching and instead looked at Vlad, who was gazing wistfully out the window, deep in thought.

"Thanks again, Mister Masters," Dash said, breaking Vlad out of his reverie.  The older man looked startled, but he quickly composed himself and smiled at Dash.

"Please, there's no need for such formalities anymore, Dashiel."  Vlad seemed not to notice the quick grimace from Dash at the sound of his full name.  "Call me Vlad.  And your hard work and eventual success is the only thanks I will ever need from you."

"Then you've got it, Vlad!"  Dash twisted in his seat to look out the window as the limousine came to a stop outside Vlad's mansion, and he looked up in awe at the place he would be staying until he could afford an apartment of his own.  Yet another reason to be grateful to Vlad.

The chauffer came around and opened the door nearest Vlad, who stepped out gracefully.  Dash followed, too busy gawking to notice that Vlad had not continued walking.  He slammed right into the man's back, and he recoiled in horror as Vlad stumbled.

"Sorry, Mister Masters!" Dash exclaimed, holding out his arm so that Vlad could steady himself.  "Er, I mean Vlad."

To his surprise, the usually irritable man laughed.  "No, no, it's quite all right, my boy.  Accidents happen, after all."  He brushed himself off, shaking his head mockingly.

To make up for his mistake, though, he grabbed all of the bags that the chauffer had set on the ground near them.  It wouldn't be right, anyway, to make Vlad carry the heavy luggage.  He followed closely behind as Vlad started for his home, recounting stories of his success and how he had managed to become a billionaire in only a few years after he was released from the hospital.

"The hospital?" Dash asked, cutting into the memoire.

Vlad paused a moment, but he didn't turn around, so Dash couldn't be sure what he was feeling.  When he resumed walking, opening the door and extending an arm into his foyer with a flourish, he answered.  "I was hospitalized during my final year at college.  I had come down with a most _unfortunate_ case of ecto-acne."

Dash cocked his head to the side as he set down the bags on the polished marble floor.  "Ecto-acne?  Isn't that, like, ghost-related?"

Vlad beamed at Dash's recognition.  "Why, yes.  It seems you've done your research.  You're correct; I attended university with the Fentons, and one of their experiments left me bed-ridden for quite a long time."

This time, Vlad was facing Dash, and he was able to distinguish the clenched jaw and the wide, feral eyes that indicated his poorly suppressed anger.  But Dash could definitely sympathize with him.  He'd had his fair share of strife with the youngest of the family.  "Of course it was the Fentons.  Looks like they've always been nothing but trouble for us _normal_ guys."

Vlad laughed at that, and Dash couldn't figure out why.  He decided against asking, though.  As he occupied himself with looking around at the immense foyer filled with various Packers memorabilia, Vlad changed the subject.  "Yes, well, would you care to see the rest of my home?  You will be here for quite some time, after all."

"Oh, I don't mean to impose, sir," Dash said.

"Not at all, Dashiel."  Vlad waved a hand flippantly to brush off the notion.  "Let's start from the bottom and work our way up.  It could take a while, though, so I do hope you're prepared."

Dash left the bags to be picked up by the help—it wasn't as if he would know where to put them, anyway.  He followed Vlad obediently, but he hesitated at the top of a great stone staircase leading into the depths of his basement.  When he said they would be starting at the bottom, he really hadn't been kidding.  With a quick exhale, he followed Vlad into the darkness.

"I apologize for the lights," Vlad was explaining.  "The switch at the top seems to have blown on me while I was away.  I'll have to call an electrician soon."  As soon as they reached the bottom of the staircase, Vlad flipped a different switch and illuminated the room.

Dash blanched.  The light from above reflected unevenly off of metal tables and gadgets, and the tiled floor did little to calm the glare of fluorescence, but the overwhelming amount of metal wasn't what immediately caught Dash's attention.  At the far end of the room was a massive circle carved out of the wall, opening into a tiny inlet filled with cords twisting and overlapping each other as they slithered out into a large machine which would obviously power the contraption.  If, of course, said contraption was operational.  Aside from a few green sparks that occasionally popped from the back of the inlet, the entire machine looked as if it were broken.

"What's that?" Dash asked, pointing at the opening.

"You see, Dashiel," Vlad began, and Dash prepared himself for a long-winded explanation, "when I was in college, I was also interested in ghosts.  I conducted numerous experiments and wrote dozens of theses on the topic, actually.  It was no coincidence that I was caught in the crossfire of the Fentons' accident."

Dash nodded, half-listening as he made his way toward the opening.

"Even though I was put in the hospital because of my research, it has always remained something of a hobby of mine to study the ins and outs of ghosts.  This, as you could imagine, is my greatest invention: the ghost portal.  You might recall that the Fentons have a similar portal in their own lab."

Dash crinkled his nose as he turned to look at Vlad.  "Yeah, but theirs glows green, doesn't it?  Yours looks broken."  He was surprised to hear that Vlad Masters was as interested in ghosts as he, himself, was, but he figured he could get more information out of him later, when they weren't in the middle of a tour of his house.  It would take a lot longer than a few minutes to learn everything that Vlad knew about ghosts.

"Alas," Vlad said, sighing dramatically, "my portal appears to have been compromised.  It shut off the last time I was here, and I haven't the mechanical experience to figure out how to get it back on.  I was always a researcher, not an engineer."

Dash perked up.  "Oh, well, I've helped my dad at his car shop before.  Maybe I could look at it.  I might be able to figure it out."

"Would you, my boy?" Vlad's smile warmed Dash's heart and filled him with a sense of purpose.  "I would be so grateful."

Dash nodded and began his examination.  Really, he wasn't the best mechanic—closer to the opposite end of the spectrum, actually—but it couldn't hurt to look.  The problem could be something simple, and he'd never figure it out if he didn't try.

The machine that attached to the portal was far too complicated for him to figure out, and so he followed the cords and wires into the belly of the beast.  He sent a quick glance over his shoulder to see Vlad coming further into the lab before he turned around and pretended to know what he was doing.  The side panels of the round inlet were coated with some green, goopy liquid, and it seemed fresh.  Dash was too afraid to touch it.

Instead, he looked at what looked like a control panel.  A stupid place to put it, he thought, but there were clear labels on all of the buttons and switches.

"Hey, Vlad?  This thing is totally powered down, right?" Dash called out to his host.

"Yes, yes, of course," Vlad assured him.  Then, in a quieter voice: "At least, I'm pretty sure it is."

Well, he'd just be careful and not mess around too much with the panel.  He scrutinized the dozens of buttons, reading each label carefully.  It wasn't until he found the buttons labeled "on" and "off" that he had his realization.

"I think I figured it out!" Dash said, fist pumping in victory.  "The 'off' button is pushed in, and the 'on' button isn't.  That's gotta be it."

"I knew I was missing something," Vlad muttered from outside the portal.  "I made sure the portal is totally powered down.  Would you mind flipping the switch for me?  I'm eager to begin my research once again."

With an all-encompassing sense of triumph, Dash reached out for the button, thinking how cool it would be to aid Vlad in his research.  Ever since Danny Phantom appeared in Amity Park, he'd been interested in ghosts.  He and Vlad were somewhat alike, then, with their hobbies.  The thought made Dash happy.

He pressed the button, and there was a tiny spark from the back of the inlet.  His heart skipped a beat, but he calmed down quickly when nothing else happened.  He trusted Vlad to make sure the portal was powered down, but it was, nonetheless, nerve-wracking to be inside the portal when it was technically turned on.

"I got it!" he said, and then he began walking toward the circular opening.

As he approached the threshold, however, there came from just outside the portal a loud click, and then the machine began to hum.  The only thing he heard before his world was engulfed in green light and unimaginable pain was a distinctly unapologetic voice say, "Oopsie."

**Author's Note:**

> So this is intended to be a one-shot with an open-ended cliffhanger. I mean if people WANT me to write more I would, but I won't unless it's actually wanted. I think it works out well this way because you can infer what happens afterward. Vlad gets the half-ghost son he's always wanted AND said son has a grudge against the Fentons. Win-win on Vlad's part. This is all based on that one comic by promsien where Vlad offers to sponsor Dash and I thought it was really cute and wonderful, and then I got to thinking why Vlad would do that and :^) this happened.


End file.
